Ben
by Jemmiah
Summary: How ObiWan got his name.


TITLE: Ben

Part One.

****************

"I don't like this place." Jemmiah scuffed her feet off the seat in the waiting room.

"I don't much care for it either." Qui-Gon replied. "But I'm afraid it's for your own good. An-Paj will be able to tell us if you can stop the medication at long last."

"I didn't like that much, either." The ten-year-old pulled a face. "Those tablets were horrible. We're talking major yuck!"

"I appreciate that. That's why I had to prise your mouth open in order to get you to swallow them."

"Probably rat poison." She folded her thin arms.

Something about that statement gave Qui-Gon the shivers for no reason that he could put his finger on. The Jedi master shook his head. 

"Let's just hope all that torment is about to come to an end."

"Thanks." Jemmy smiled.

"Not for you, for me." Qui-Gon replied watching as Dex Berlingside made his way out of a side room with a scowling padawan in tow. 

"He looks happy." Jinn mumbled sarcastically as the blonde young man rubbed his arm in irritation. 

"Who does?"

Qui-Gon nodded at the couple as they made their way over towards them.

"You've not met Master Berlingside's apprentice, have you?" he mused. "That is padawan Kryztan Harkley."

Jemmiah regarded him silently as the teenager ran his unharmed hand through his close cut golden hair. A slight smile crawled onto her lips, one that Qui-Gon mistook for something else entirely.

"He tends to have that effect on the young females in the temple." He remarked casually. "It was the same with his master."

"Effect?" Jemmiah puzzled. "He doesn't have any kind of effect on me. Looks like he fancies himself too much, anyhow."

"You've not even met him." Qui-Gon chided gently.

"Am I wrong?"

Qui-Gon thought about it for a moment.

"No." he said eventually.

"There, you see! And anyhow he is far too pretty. A man should look like a man. That's what Nadine used to say. And she saw plenty of men so she should know what she was…"

"Why don't we say hello." Qui-Gon nudged her, anxious to change the topic.

Jemmy shrugged.

"Qui-Gon!" Dex hailed his friend lazily. "No rouge today? No curlers?"

"Very amusing." Jinn grimaced.

"What a pity." Berlingside placed a hand on his padawan's shoulder. "I thought it added a little something."

"Did you have something in particular to say, is that why you are here?" Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow, enjoying the battle of words. "Or was it just to insult me?"

"No reason, just the insult." Dex smiled breezily. "I've been taking this one to have his medical. Guess who had to have his inoculations for Florizan Influenza?"

"That explains the sore arm." Qui-Gon turned to the pouting figure of Harkley. "How does it feel?"

"Painful, sir." Muttered Kryztan. "Very, very painful."

"Good." Dex grinned. "Why should you get away with it? When we were padawans things were just as bad. There wasn't any kindly Healer Xadaani in our day with her gentle touch."

"Gentle?" Kryztan's eyes rolled. "Master, she stabbed me!"

"You shouldn't have asked her if she was properly qualified to give injections to anything higher up the evolutionary scale than an orange." Dex tutted ruefully.

"I think she'd been drinking." Kryztan put a hand to his injured arm.

"Probably. It's the padawans that drive her to it." Jemmy supplied.

Kryztan looked at her for the first time, somewhat hurt.

"I'm a nice guy." He smiled confidently. "I can charm any female in the temple, isn't that right master?"

"Anyone except healer Xadaani." Dex answered as the boy's face fell.

"Well, there has to be something wrong with her." He boasted much to Qui-Gon's amusement. 

Harkley noticed Jemmiah was staring at him in a funny way.

"What's the matter?"

"You." The Corellian girl relied. "Your voice is all funny."

Kryztan bristled.

"It is not!

"Yes it is." Jemmy insisted. "It's all low and croaky one moment and all high and squeaky the next."

"There's nothing wrong with my voice!" he looked embarrassed.

"Have you heard it? Sounds like a mouse in a blender!"

Harkley looked utterly mortified by Jemmiah's teasing. Obi-Wan's voice had gone through the same punishment recently but Kryztan was even younger and his chagrin was still greater.

Dex looked highly amused.

"You know what day it is tomorrow?" he asked Jemmiah.

The Corellian girl's eyes lit up.

"It's the ancient Corellian day of remembrance." She grinned. "The day that all the Corellian kids who've been good all year get rewarded."

"What's this?" Qui-Gon frowned.

"It's the festival of Benbeau." Dex added.

"Who?"

"Benbeau. He was a Corellian princeling of ancient legend but he turned his back on all his riches and wealth to help the children of the paupers."

"Silly man." Jemmy sighed. "No Corellian worth his hide would turn down a fortune to help scabby kids. Still, I suppose it's all in fun."

"Quite." Said Dex. "And it's not as if you haven't benefited, eh?"

Qui-Gon was at a loss.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Benbeau is a bringer of gifts to all the Corellian children who have been good all year." He looked at Jemmiah. "Have you been good?"

"As gold." She said innocently. "Same with every year. Even when I was at Merdan's camp I ALWAYS got a present because I was wonderful." She said proudly.

Jinn frowned at Dex. Dex smirked back.

"Well, I'm sure he'll be just as generous this year. Don't you think so, Qui-Gon?"

Qui-Gon's frown became a glare.

"Master Jinn?" An-Paj stepped forwards. "Do you want to wait outside whilst we run the usual tests or do you want to come in?"

Jinn regarded the blue skinned healer with his shock of white hair neatly brushed so that he looked every inch the immaculate and cool professional. He switched his gaze to Dex, who resembled a large, golden lounge lizard.

"I think I'll stay outside this once. You don't mind, do you?" He asked Jemmiah.

"Naaaaaah." She sighed deeply. "Not unless you feel the need to see my blood being spilled yet again."

An-Paj steered her towards the consultant's room.

"I'll send for you when the test results are ready." He told Qui-Gon.

Qui-Gon waited until they had disappeared out of sight and whirled round on Dex.

"Generous?" he queried.

"Qui-Gon, she's just a kid. And kids like to have things to cling onto, whether it's a possession or a belief or something like that. Corellia day was important back home. I used to get presents at the foot of my bed from Benbeau."

"She's ten years old. Shouldn't someone take her aside and tell her there's no such thing?" Qui-Gon asked, feeling like a monster that was about to kick some poor dumb animal.

Dex's lip began to wobble dramatically.

"No such thing?" he sniffled. "Qui-Gon! What are you trying to tell me? That all those years that I thought Benbeau was leaving presents for me and it was all a sham?"

"I think you'll find it was a Quirida-Xac shaped sham." Qui-Gon nodded. "I'm sorry old friend," he put out a steadying hand to his friend, "but you had to find this out some time."

"Oh, well." Dex rubbed his hands. "Can't be helped. Seriously, Qui. That girl's had a rough crack of the whip so far. You really want to disillusion her now? If you do just go ahead and tell her."

Qui-Gon knew there was no choice to be made.

"This is a VERY bad idea, Dex. And that's saying something because you've had some absolute stinkers in your time."

"You're too kind." Berlingside bowed.

"What do I do?"

"You have to get her a gift."

Qui-Gon blew out a breath. That didn't sound so bad.

"Then you have to creep into her room at the middle of the night and put the present at the foot of her bed.

"What!" exclaimed Qui-Gon. "She'll see it's me! That girl is a light sleeper. Ever since she came off the old tablets and started on the new ones she does nothing but toss and turn all night."

"I thought An-Paj was going to say that you could stop the medication?"

"Hopefully." Qui-Gon groused. "That's why we're here today."

Dex watched as Qui-Gon rested his face in his hands.

"Would now be a good time to tell you about the costume?" He asked.

********************************

Obi-Wan looked smug.

"You won't be able to do it, master."

"Of course I will. Where is your faith?"

"I have every faith in you. It's just I know what Jemmy's like and you won't be able to do it. You can't pull the wool over the…"

"…Eyes of a Corellian." Qui-Gon chanted in unison with his padawan. "Where have I heard that one before? This is all Dex's fault. If he hadn't opened his big mouth…"

Obi-Wan picked up a Papyri fruit and placed it on the chopping board. The apprentice grinned to himself as he cleft the pink flesh with a large knife, sawing through the stone in the middle. He knew exactly why his master didn't want any part in this scheme of Master Berlingside's.

"Have you tried on the costume?" he asked as he chuckled his way through a mouthful of sickly sweet fruit.

"No." Jinn snapped back. "I am not wearing a silly hat with bells on the pointy end."

"But you'll look lovely." Kenobi laughed.

"Do you want to eat that fruit or wear it?" Qui-Gon asked simply.

Obi-Wan went back to munching, liking the sticky juice off his fingers.

"I don't see why I should anyhow." Qui-Gon sulked.

"It's incase she sees someone wandering round her room in the middle of the night and wonders who it is." Obi-Wan said plausibly.

"Then what do I do?"

"Pretend." Shrugged Obi-Wan.

"She'll know it's me!" Qui-Gon pointed to himself. "I'm fairly distinctive, if I say so myself."

"Oh dear." Obi-Wan shook his head. "How much?"

"How much what?"

"How much did you bet that you could sneak into her room and put that present down without being discovered?"

An aura of disquiet seemed to surround Qui-Gon very suddenly, as he shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other."

"Not much." He confessed.

"How much?"

"Well," Qui-Gon folded his arms on the work surface and rested his chin on his hands, "put it this way; if we don't win this bet then we will be living on boiled rice and water for the next couple of months."

The shock on Obi-Wan's face amused Qui-Gon even in his hour of need.

"But master, I'll starve!" he protested crossly. "I am a growing boy. I've worked out that I am expending so much energy through the day that if I don't eat constantly I will die of hunger in approximately four days!"

"Then you'll just have to sit down more, won't you?" Jinn replied. "Maybe if you hadn't expended all that effort on pointless calculations you would have five days instead!"

Kenobi hastily stuffed a large section of fruit into his mouth incase it miraculously disappeared from his sight.

"What are you doing?" Qui-Gon asked distasteful as he saw the padawan's face bulge like a frog in mid-croak.

"Stocking up." Obi-Wan barely managed to get out.

Qui-Gon rolled his eyes and went back to the problem in hand.

"We could always knock her out using the force…"

"Master, what is this WE business?" Obi-Wan chewed on his fruit, feeling slightly ill now. 

Jinn examined the ceiling with effecting a carefree expression.

"Guess who gets to be Benbeau's little helper?" 

******************************

LATER THAT NIGHT:

"She's been in bed for over two hours." Qui-Gon mumbled, stretching out with the force to see if she was still awake. He got in response only a hazy, drowsiness. Not sleep exactly but close enough.

"I wish I was in bed." Obi-Wan yawned.

"Maybe we should risk it." Qui-Gon's eyes shone with the light of battle, a look that Obi-Wan knew only too well. "Where's your outfit?"

"Do I have to?" Kenobi groaned.

"It was part of the bet."

"Master, forgive me for saying this but I don't like your bet."

Obi-Wan's complaining face turned to astonishment and then glee as Qui-Gon removed the cloak he was wearing to reveal:

"Master, you look like a tree!" Obi-Wan half sang. "I love the little green feathery bits. And the bells on the shoes! And the green tights are absolutely…"

His voice trailed off as Qui-Gon held up an identical costume in red, only smaller. And with even more bells.

"I'm not wearing that!" Obi-Wan pointed in shock.

"It's incase she sees someone wandering round her room in the middle of the night and wonders who it is." Qui-Gon took great pleasure in quoting back at him.

"But I can't!" Obi-Wan folded his arms. "We'll clash terribly. Red and green should never be seen…"

"That's beyond feeble, padawan." Qui-Gon tossed him the outfit, bells jingling merrily with every movement of his head.

"I suppose we'll both look as stupid as each other in the dark." Grumbled the apprentice. "You know, all we need now is for the fire alarms to go off and…"

"DON'T tempt fate!" Qui-Gon rebuked him.

*************************

"Open the door!"

"You open the door, master!"

"Shhhhh! You want to wake her up?"

"Have you got the present?"

"Yes. Just open the door!"

"OK. Here we go…."

Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak!

"Shhhhh!"

"It wasn't me!"

"Keep your voice down. We've a lot riding on this."

Silence.

"WHO'S THERE?!" A young Corellian voice, sounding a little bit concerned called out.

Qui-Gon turned and fled as quickly as his legs would carry him and manhandled the padawan out the way and back to the safety of the living area.

"She knew!" He gasped. "How did she know?"

"Probably stayed up all night to watch out for Benbeau." Obi-Wan pulled a face. "Well, that didn't work. I'm off to bed then, master. Good night…"

"Not so fast." Qui-Gon shot out a restraining arm. "You leave and we both suffer. Remember?"

"What now, then?" Kenobi took off his little pixie hat and threw it on the ground.

"We try again later." Qui-Gon said, watching as his padawan stifled yet another yawn.

"She can't stay up all night. Not even Jemmiah"

***************************

OK. So he had been wrong. Spectacularly wrong.

He'd never underestimate the girl again.

It was now three in the morning and Obi-Wan was practically sleeping on his feet. The pointy hat seemed to droop in sympathy and Qui-Gon had given up counting the yawns.

Every time he'd gone in it had been the same.

"WHO'S THERE?"

How long could a ten-year-old girl stay awake? 

Well, Qui-Gon wouldn't be beaten. He couldn't afford to be. One word from Jemmiah to Dex about who was really dancing about in the small hours like a demented elf would cost him very dearly indeed…

He nudged Obi-Wan again and woke the boy just as he was about to commence snoring.

"Right." He sucked in a deep breath. "One more go."

More asleep than awake, Obi-Wan followed in zombie like state after his master, eyes barely open. "Master, I've worked out that if I don't get eight hours of sleep every day then I will eventually…"

"Shush!" Qui-Gon put his ear to the door and thought he could hear the gentle, rhythmical breaths of sleep coming from Jemmiah 's bed.

He hesitated a moment before stepping into the room for what seemed like the hundredth time, pulling Obi-Wan along. He stopped at the bottom of the bed and quickly placed the badly wrapped cuddly toy on the bottom of the sheets, before turning exultantly to his padawan and raising a triumphant fist.

"Now maybe we can get some sleep too…" he whispered, his bells jingling as he leaned over to his padawan.

"LIGHTS ON!" Yelled an irritated Corellian voice. "I don't know who that is but you just wait 'til I get Master Jinn on you!"

Qui-Gon had already stormed out the open door by the time her sentence had ended, slamming it shut behind him and trapping Obi-Wan inside. Before he could say anything a huge blanket had engulfed him over the head and pulled tightly round him.

Jemmiah spotted the present on her bed and did a double take.

"Benbeau? B-Ben?" she asked in a shaky voice. "Is that you?"

"Er…yes." Obi-Wan said through the sheet.

Suspicious, Jemmiah released her hold of the suspect and threw back the cover.

"Obi-Wan?" she exclaimed.

"Sith! The game's up now!" Kenobi groaned. "And I'll starve to death and all because of my master's stupid bet with Master Berlingside."

"Don't worry." Jemmy shrugged. "I won't tell him. If you want to go around like a radish that's been left out in the sun too long that's no concern of his."

"You won't say?" Obi-Wan asked. "Aren't you disappointed?"

"What for?" Jemmy shook her head. "I've got my present. It's not like I really believe in that stuff, although you had me going for a bit. But Master Jinn seemed to want to, so I thought I'd humor him."

"You don't believe?" Obi-Wan's voice soared.

"Course not. I gave up believing in that ages ago. Still, I got a present out of it, eh?" she grinned.

"So you're not going to say to Master Berlingside? If it gets back to Kryztan that I did this then my life won't be worth living."

"I won't tell a soul." Jemmy smiled.

"BEN!"


End file.
